The Violins of Saint-Jacques

A short book by Patrick Leigh Fermor, very early in his career, and his only work of fiction, as far as I can tell.
The narrator retells the story of an elderly woman he meets in the Aegean, a tale of her early life in a (fictional) Caribbean island, just east of Guadeloupe and Dominica.

The writing style is very... extravagant. It is very wordy, very descriptive, and very flamboyant. It is a bit much for me, and until the crises (no limiting to a single crisis in this book, there are many) begin, the story doesn't grip me, and it was heading to two stars. Once the narrator gets in to the swing of things the unnecessary (to me, I am a simple man) falls away and the story is well told.

An interesting book, much more highly acclaimed by other than me, but interesting nevertheless.